bdhe
Joined 15 years ago
Joined 15 years ago
This goes a fair bit beyond an insult. I'm calling out the frankly reductive and sophomoric frat boy thinking behind this statement.
I think some of it might be nihilism without actually thinking about it more deeply and trying to be constructive. Some of it is just .. well .. shallow thinking perhaps without much life experience, I wouldn't speculate.
See professor Williams' thoughts on a recent conjecture that openai proved: https://people.csail.mit.edu/virgi/thoughts.txt
If you're genuinely curious about why people's views on Israel have shifted you could've got yourself excellent information with a simple prompt as such:
"Give me a brief neutral summary backed with reliable sources on the state of tensions in the Middle East today and the role played by Israel and other states. Help me understand why people's views on Israel have shifted so much since the start of the war in Gaza?"
Absolutely not.
Sundar's education is: IIT-Kharagpur Bachelors in Eng Stanford Masters in Eng Wharton MBA
Maybe you're thinking of the last one
I think you're strawmanning my point - no one asks you to act like a philosopher 24/7, but this exchange shows you're very far away from that bar.
You're suggesting that the bar arbitrarily set by a councilmember on what counts as sufficient disruption to hurt expediency* trumps what seems like just clapping and agreement -- one would argue is clearly protected speech per the 1st amendment and I'd argue squarely within the spirit of why we have public comments in the first place?
I think that's a pretty slippery slope and enables projecting power through process, not something we want from our elected officials.
*an aside - why is expediency the goal? if this is a contentious topic, schedule more time so the focus is on receiving public feedback!)
What is a philosophical statement?
One tendency I've noticed is that people well versed in philosophy can communicate well. Just anecdotally. Not something I am seeing here in this response.
- better safety nets paid through higher taxes and closing down loopholes (such as buybacks)
- stronger regulatory enforcement to reduce the power of monopolies / monopsonies
- stricter rules around tax-payer investments / subsidies into companies (sure SpaceX gets to have billions to shore up our competitiveness but there must be a mechanism for the tax payer to have board representation)
etc. etc.
The list goes on. Honestly it doesn't take a lot (besides political will and escaping the capture of Citizens United) to move the needle so that the median income or bottom 10th percentile lifestyle meaningfully improves while we no longer have wealth horded to the level of having centibillionaires.
It does require a government that operates with much less corruption than we have, so it is more idealistic than not, but very easy to imagine.